Jersey City theater company to study Shakespearean women in power

The Actors Shakespeare Company (ASC) at New Jersey City University will hold a lab project to examine "feminine authority during the reign of Elizabeth I and beyond."

The lab, called “Shakespeare’s Queens,” will feature performances and a lecture by the women of ASC as well as an opportunity for artists and students to explore many seemingly disparate texts at once.

Denise Hurd, the director of the lab, was inspired to start the project by her realization that “Shakespeare’s formative ideas of power and royalty had to be influenced by the living example he had before him for the majority of his life - Queen Elizabeth I.”

Hurd described Elizabeth’s ruling years as “the only time England has had a queen without a consort, ruling, and ruling for a long time.” Hurd said she wanted to create something that the ASC women would find rewarding while offering a performance for local schools with a lecture and scene format.

“Shakespeare’s women frequently have more integrity and insight than the men around them ...There is merit in looking at how he poses and answers the question of female authority in a largely patriarchal society,” she said.

Some show the strength of Shakespearean women in authority like the closing scene from “Antony and Cleopatra,” when the Egyptian queen kills herself with a poisonous asp, and several scenes from Henry VI (a three-part play) featuring Queen Margaret of Anjou, one of the few Shakespearean women to play an active role in warfare.

The actresses will also play male parts in scenes from “Henry V” and “Richard II” so the audience can compare the kings’ speeches directly to the writings of Queen Elizabeth I.

Hurd says she hopes the lab will bring “vigorous classical theater” to the underserved community in Jersey City and help Shakespeare enthusiasts explore how Shakespeare presented ideas of power.

“Often as not, Shakespeare’s queens are the ones who speak the most sense in a situation, or cut directly to the heart of a problem,” Hurd said.

“They are not always listened to or believed, which is generally a failure of imagination or foresight on the part of the men around them, from Margaret in Henry VI expertly summarizing the dangers of the factionalism around Henry VI to even Cordelia’s choice to be plain and truthful and not flowery and deceptive. And, in Elizabeth’s speeches, she herself had to deal with a lot of second guessing on the part of her counselors.”

The cast also will have a questions and answer period at the end of the lab.

For more information or to make reservations call the ASC at NJCU box office at (201) 200-2390 or visit www.ascnj.org.

Staff writer Ashley Strain contributed to this report.

If you go
WHO: Actors Shakespeare Company of New Jersey
WHAT: Shakespeare’s Queens lab project
WHEN: Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.
WHERE: The West Side Theater, 176 West Side Ave., Jersey City.
DETAILS: Admission is free. For more information, visit ASCNJ.org.